I'm trying to get my husband to get a job closer to home now we have a child so he's around more to see her. To me 3k isn't much less that you'd miss it.But that does depend on your wages now and travel costs I guess. Would shorter travel time save you money as well?

It comes down to this - for me, commuting time is the work of the devil and I would take quite a large percentage cut in pay to be close to home (or do a job I don't really like very much) so I can either spend more time with the kids OR more time at work.

My DH is far less concerned about it and will look at jobs much further away than I do.

If $3k would cause a significant issue for us financially, then probably not. However, I would make the swap if $3k reduction was doable without putting Us under too much financial stress.

Because I am a relatively high income earner, I would do it in a heart beat.

Yes. You would save on petrol (maybe parking too?) and get 30 mins back in your life. I'm assuming it's doing the exact same job? If so, then yes but if the job is significantly different you would need to weigh up everything else as money shouldn't be the main factor for changing jobs.

Does this make it 5 minutes instead of 20 or does this make it an hour instead of an hour and fifteen minutes?

This.

And also it would depend for me on what % the $3K represented of my salary! If it was 20% then I'd think hard about it - especially if that $40 meant my child would need to give up swimming lessons or something. If it were a small % and the money wassn't critical - then absolutely.

I moved from being 45 minutes from work to being 10 minutes....and it's changed my life! Would definitely be worth $3K!!!

I would absolutely. We have lived in the same area (15-20min max) of every job we have both had, except for 2 years when DH worked 1.5hour each way train commute (or 1:15 hours in car due to traffic). Worst time ever. We struggled to match shift times and meal times and once we both got local jobs we swore we would always work within 20min (either car or PT) of our home.

It makes an enormous difference to lifestyle.

As PP pointed out, the weekly difference in pay is minimal, and you could realistically charge your neighbour to do one basket of ironing a week and make the difference back.

It was a difference between a 10 minute trip to work (which is 5 minutes from DDs school) to 30 minutes to work (and 20 minutes from DDs school).

I like being close to DDs school and this has already come in handy several times since I started this job 7 weeks ago.

I have no chance of promotion now so my income is possibly far less than it would have been if I'd stayed in my old job. Because I no longer pay public transport costs which were $30 a week it's balanced out though. Is this something that will be a factor for you?

I doubt fuel would cost much more for an extra 15 minutes, but the difference between starting and not starting your car is signifcant.

There can be hidden costs with commuting so take these into consideration too.

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